1. Field of the Invention
Even in the most simple cases, the industrial manufacture of textiles, normally by treatment of a web-form material by the so-called continuous process, involves a plurality of successive treatment stages in which the web-form textile material is exposed to the action of generally water-based treatment liquors. The nature of the textile material used, the degree of finishing achieved in preliminary stages, if any, and the ultimate objective determine the choice of the chemicals or mixtures of chemicals suitable for the particular treatment stage and also the working conditions under which they develop their effect and/or react off on the textile material.
2. Discussion of Related Art
The teaching according to the present invention is based on the continuing need in practice to achieve considerable reductions in working time and in the number of treatment stages absolutely necessary and, optionally, to combine a plurality of treatment steps hitherto carried out separately into a single treatment step. Recent developments in machinery of the type used in the field in question, as described in ES-A1-545 681 and in EP-A1-0 352 591, have opened up new possibilities in this regard in relation to conventional textile finishing. Both documents describe new methods of spraying water-based treatment liquors onto web-form textile material, the last document in particular dealing at length with the techological problems involved in the application of liquors by aerosol/superheated steam spraying. Design measures are proposed for overcoming the various difficulties of this technology.
The teaching according to the present invention, which is described in detail hereinafter, is based on existing knowledge of modern continuous processes. The invention seeks to enable these technical possibilities to be broadly applied in improved form. Accordingly, the invention also seeks inter alia to enable a plurality of process steps hitherto carried out in succession to be combined into a single treatment step. Even without this further development, however, the invention seeks to enable each of the various treatment steps involved in the continuous process to be rationalized and, in particular, to be shortened in duration.
The crux of the solution proposed by the invention lies in the combination of a specifically selected process for applying the treatment liquor onto or into the textile material and the specific influencing of the behavior of the treatment liquor on and in the textile material during and after its application under the working conditions. Through a controlled chemical modification of the treatment liquor, the teaching of the invention seeks to ensure that individual, separate process steps can be reliably carried out in very short times and/or that a plurality of successive process steps can be combined with one another into a multifunctional treatment step, more particularly of shortened duration. Above all, however, the invention also seeks in this regard to ensure that the textile web as a whole is uniformly finished throughout in the required manner, despite the drastically shortened duration of the treatment.